A home with a $62 million view

Meg Barone

Published 5:45 pm, Saturday, September 14, 2013

Photo: Contributed Photo

Image 1of/4

Caption

Close

Image 1 of 4

The Elizabethan Renaissance-style manor house with a Tudor Gothic Revival wing, situated with several other buildings on a 20-acre waterfront at the tip of Sasco Point, is on the market for $62 million.

The Elizabethan Renaissance-style manor house with a Tudor Gothic Revival wing, situated with several other buildings on a 20-acre waterfront at the tip of Sasco Point, is on the market for $62 million.

Photo: Contributed Photo

Image 2 of 4

This 20-acre Sasco Point estate, with several buildings and recreational facilities, is on the market for $62 million.

This 20-acre Sasco Point estate, with several buildings and recreational facilities, is on the market for $62 million.

Photo: File Photo

Image 3 of 4

One of the five buildings on the 20-acre Sasco Point estate now on the market for $62 million.

One of the five buildings on the 20-acre Sasco Point estate now on the market for $62 million.

Photo: Contributed Photo

Image 4 of 4

This gargoyle architectural feature is one of several that decorate the brick Elizabethan and Tudor-style structures on the Sasco Point estate.

This gargoyle architectural feature is one of several that decorate the brick Elizabethan and Tudor-style structures on the Sasco Point estate.

Photo: Contributed Photo

A home with a $62 million view

1 / 4

Back to Gallery

A Fairfield estate, designed by the architect who built the Cloisters museum and Riverside Church in Manhattan, is on the market for $62 million, making it the most expensive houses in Fairfield -- and one of the most expensive estates along all of Connecticut's Gold Coast.

The 20-acre waterfront estate on Sasco Point, in the Southport section of town, includes a 17,000-plus-square-foot Elizabethan Renaissance-style manor house with a Tudor Gothic Revival wing, a six-bedroom Victorian gatehouse, post-and-beam barn, tennis court, heated swimming pool, numerous out buildings, and sweeping views of the Long Island Sound and Southport Harbor.

There is also a grotto-style stone staircase leading to the beach.

"It's just exquisite. It was kept grand and splendid for over 90 years," said Victoria Fingelly, who represents the house for Nicholas H. Fingelly Real Estate, which has an office in Southport Village.

In 1997, Katherine Riegel Emory, daughter of the original owners, deeded a conservation restriction to the Aspetuck Land Trust, safeguarding 6.4 acres of the estate, including 1,850 feet of waterfront. Emory's vision was not just self-serving for her family and for future owners of the property. Fingelly said Emory kept in mind the public, shorebirds and wildlife.

In her purpose statement for the deed restriction, Emory said she wanted the shorefront portion of her estate to be preserved "as one of the last remaining examples of the gracious and expansive open spaces on Long Island Sound that were traditionally a part of the large estates that formerly flourished in the area."

In the document, Emory also said it was her privilege to be a good steward of this particular land.

"The views of this open space have given pleasure, not only to generations of owners and their families, but also to generations of the public, who enjoy the sight of the scenic, undeveloped shoreline from two nearby public beaches, from the public road past Southport Beach, and from the waters of Long Island Sound.

In an area as rapidly and as intensively developing as the Connecticut shore, this remaining, highly-scenic open space is a unique treasure which provides pleasure and spiritual renewal to many, as well as sanctuary to birds and animals," the document reads, in part.

The estate is not only the most expensive residential property in Fairfield, it is also one of the most highly taxed of all properties -- either commercial or residential -- in town.

As of October 2010, the house was assessed at $24,203,270, which represents 70 percent of the fair market value.

On the 2012 grand list of all taxable properties, the house assessment was $24,453,790.

The property owned by Bradley and Karin Jack -- the actual address is 1143-1155 Sasco Hill Road -- was the only residential holding among the 10 most highly taxed in town, ranking eighth last year.

Taxes are overdue on the property -- $144,796.06, the first installment of this year's taxes, was due in July, said Tax Collector Cinda Buchter.

The next installment is due in January.

The current interest payment due as of Sept. 6 is $6,515.06.

Jack, a former Lehman Brothers executive, made headlines of a different sort in 2011 and again in 2012 when he was charged in both Fairfield and Westport with forging prescriptions for controlled drugs.

In March 2012, the Jacks' estate was put on a list of tax-deliquent properties that the town threatened to sell at auction unless the overdue taxes were paid, which at the time totaled more than $270,000.

The taxes and penalties were subsequently paid, and the compound was removed from the town's delinquent tax list.